Pope Francis and the Poor

In the section of his apostolic exhortation labeled "Some Challenges of Today's World," Pope Francis speaks about the idolatry of money and a financial system that excludes rather than includes. These comments have generated a considerable amount of commentary in the media, both print and electronic. Articles are appearing in major news magazines, newspapers, and in their associated blogs about how his comments are making certain people very nervous and even disappointed.

During his first news conference with the various media representatives who covered his election, Pope Francis spoke of how he chose his papal name: "Francis." He said that another South American cardinal was sitting next to him and whispered to him, "Do not forget the poor." Upon hearing those words, Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio decided to take the name of Francis, the poor man of Assisi. "This was what I wanted - a poor church for the poor." I can remember exactly what I was doing when his election was announced from the loggia of St. Peter's. I was sitting in front of our community television with another friar and the woman who cooks for our community. I had been a Latin teacher for some years in one of our province high schools. So I understood immediately that he had taken the name Francis. I was thunderstruck. As a Franciscan, I could not restrain my joy.

Since that day, Pope Francis has not ceased preaching about the needs of the poor and the responsibility that we, as a church, have for them. Some have called the Pope a Marxist for his thoughts about our economy. They obviously don't know their Scriptures very well. The covenant that was ratified between God and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai contained two absolute requirements. First, the Israelites must never look to any other god. Second, the children of Israel were required to care for those in their midst who were powerless; namely, the poor, the disenfranchised, the widows and orphans, the aliens in their midst. Jesus was not original in his concern for the poor as expressed in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus was simply harking back to the oldest tradition of Judaism. Open the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures to any one of the classical prophets, major or minor. You will find that there are two things of which these men accuse the Israelite nation: they turned to other gods and they forgot to take care of the poor.

So in addressing the need of the Church to return to the joy of the Gospel, the Holy Father is not proclaiming a Marxist doctrine. He is proclaiming the message that has been handed down to us since the very first days of God's revelation of Himself. He is the God of the Poor.

One of my New Testament teachers specializes in the Gospel of St. Luke. He makes the claim that while Jesus was accused of blasphemy and of breaking the law of the Sabbath by the Jewish authorities, the primary reason for his execution was that he had preached that the Kingdom of God was for the poor. He was rejected by those who held the power in society because they did not like his message; they did not like being reminded that "the Lord hears the cries of the poor." (Psalm 34)

In conclusion, I also want to make the point that while Pope Francis has been preaching this message most forcefully ever since the day of his election, his predecessors preached the same message. Every pope since I was born and, indeed, every pope of the twentieth century has held the plight of the poor up to the eyes of the world. Yet it cannot be denied that Pope Francis is, perhaps, being heard more clearly. Without denigrating the efforts of his predecessors, I believe this is because of the fact that he is leading by example as well as by his words. I suspect that in days to come we will regard this man, Francis, as the Poverello of Argentina, just as we call his namesake the Poverello of Assisi.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator